Ruthanna Boris (March 18, 1919 – January 5, 2007) was the first American Ballerina to star with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo troupes of the 1940s.

[1] She died in El Cerrito, California and her papers are held at Houghton Library, Harvard University.

[2] An offshoot of the American Ballet was Lincoln Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan, created to encourage new choreographers, including Lew Christensen (who gave Boris the title role in Pocahontas),[3] William Dollar, Erick Hawkins and Eugene Loring, who chose Boris for their creations.

In 1935 she appeared on Broadway in the ballet-musical Alma Mater, with Tamara Geva, choreography by George Balanchine, and music by Kay Swift.

[7] When she joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1943 she was given junior rank, with the preference being given to Russian dancers.

Her status improved when Balanchine arrived as principle choreographer; he put her in Danses Concertantes, Night Shadow and Raymonda.

[10] Also for the NYCB she choreographed Kaleidoscope (1952),[11] a suite of dances to Kabalevsky’s The Comedians, Bayou (1952) and Will o’ the Wisp (1953), about a naiad capturing a sleeping boy.

In 1959 the hip injury led to degenerative arthritis, leading to more surgeries and the use of crutches, ending her dancing career.